Editor who called for KKK to 'ride again' hands over control of newspaper

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Embattled Alabama publisher and editor Goodloe Sutton, who received widespread condemnation this week for racist and violent rhetoric, announced Friday that he has handed over control of his newspaper.

Elecia Dexter, was named publisher and editor at the Democrat-Reporter of Linden on Thursday, according to a press release distributed by the newspaper.

Reached by phone on Friday afternoon, Sutton said Dexter was the new “publisher, owner, and editor” of the Democrat-Reporter. He refused to say if the paper had been sold to Dexter or if ownership had been transferred, and repeatedly called a Montgomery Advertiser reporter “dumb” for asking.

The Alabama Secretary of State’s website did not have a record of any transaction as of Friday afternoon. It can sometimes take a few days for records on the site to update.

Dexter, 46, told The Associated Press that Sutton will retain ownership of the newspaper, which has a circulation of about 3,000, “but I will handle everything else.”

Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, at the newspaper office in Linden, Ala., on Thursday February 21, 2019.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

Sutton this week called for the extrajudicial killings of "socialist-communists" after his history of racist and anti-Semitic editorials came to light. In a Thursday interview with the Montgomery Advertiser, he refused to apologize for his previous writings and would not acknowledge his call for violence constituted lynchings.

Sutton, who was also the publisher of the newspaper in Marengo County, published an editorial last week calling for "the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" to clean up Washington, D.C., from "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats (who) are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama."

When asked to elaborate what he meant by "cleaning up D.C.," the 80-year-old Sutton suggested lynching, saying "we'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them."

Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, wrote an editorial calling for the KKK to clean up Washington DC in the February 14, 2019 issue of his newspaper. Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, used the front page of his paper to publish positive responses to his controversial editorial in the paper, shown at the newspaper office in Linden, Ala., on Thursday February 21, 2019. Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, answers the phone at the newspaper office in Linden, Ala., as he discusses media coverage of his controversial editorial on Thursday February 21, 2019. Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

Goodloe Sutton, publisher of the Democrat-Reporter newspaper, uses a dictionary to look up the words lynch and mob as he discusses the media coverage of his controversial editorial at the newspaper office in Linden, Ala., on Thursday February 21, 2019. Mickey Welsh / Advertiser